Unknown Luther summoned by the pope Luther summoned by the pope Some time after this, Luther received a letter from the pope. The pope ordered him to stop preaching against the church and to retract what he had been saying and writing. Luther wrote back immediately saying he could not comply with this order. In reply, the pope demanded that Luther go to Rome to meet with him there. Luther’s friends couldn’t help but remember what had happened to John Huss. The pope had also ordered Huss to appear before him, and he had been captured and killed even though he had been promised the pope’s protection. For this reason, Luther refused to go to Rome. The pope tried another plan. He wrote to Frederick the Wise, the Elector of Saxony, telling Frederick that he had to send Luther to Rome. But Frederick the Wise, who was Luther’s friend, asked the pope to send representatives to Germany to deal with Luther. Meetings with Cardinal Cajetan in October 1518, and Karl von Militz in January 1519, failed to get Luther to recant. These papal delegates tried to force Luther to take back everything he said against Roman Catholic teaching, but it soon became clear that Luther knew much more about the Bible than they did. He refused to retract anything he had said or written since it was based on God’s Word. Realizing these men were terribly angry with him and that he was now in danger, Luther left the city during the night. His friends helped him escape because they feared the pope and his men would probably try to arrest him and put him in prison. God protected His brave servant because there was still much work for him to do.